He’s one of the nation’s most recognized Black intellectuals, whose teaching career has landed him at Columbia University, Morehouse College and his alma mater, Temple University, where he currently holds the Steve Charles Chair in Media, Cities and Solutions.
He’s a regular on CNN, offering provocative commentary on a range of issues from politics to reforming the prison industrial system.
Now, Dr. Marc Lamont Hill is the owner of a Black bookstore, located in the heart of Philadelphia’s Black neighborhood.
“This is not a vanity thing,” says Hill in an interview with Diverse, adding that he will be involved in the day-to-day operations of the bookstore, including selecting the books that will line the shelves and working behind the counter as a barista.
“The tradition of Black bookstores and Black publishing is the thing that helped me to develop an identity and my sense of critical analysis and helped me to understand Blackness in a different and more nuanced way,” says Hill, who recalls frequenting Hakim’s bookstore—a Black owned shop located in West Philadelphia’s Black neighborhood—as a youngster. “Black bookstores helped me to develop a love of self and a knowledge of self. They showed me what was possible.”
Haki R. Madhubuti, who founded the Third World Press—the oldest independent publisher of Black thought and literature in the country—was an early influence on Hill. The books that he published were a lesson to Hill that “Black people published and produced ideas, not just experience” and that “we had the capacity to do any and everything, and that we already had,” he says, adding that he was introduced to topics and people that he would never have met.
For Hill, the establishment of Uncle Bobbie’s Coffee & Books is a dream come true.
